MOODIE: MAZON CREEK, ILL., SHALES. 333 
present specimen is considered as more immature than the 
former, on account of its smaller size. There are no positive 
evidences in either specimen of branchial arches. 
The matter of especial interest in connection with the second 
specimen is the remarkably perfect preservation of the ali- 
mentary canal. It is entire except for the very anterior end 
of the cesophagus. The posterior portion of the cesophagus, 
which measures three and one-half millimeters, is clearly pre- 
served. Its anterior end is thrown around posteriorly, and 
indicates that this end was loosened after death and became 
displaced before preservation. The length preserved possibly 
represents the entire cesophagus. The cesophagus is con- 
stricted before it enters the stomach, which shows the usual 
curvature found in modern salamanders. The stomach meas- 
ures six millimeters in length by two in greatest breadth. It 
consists of a single enlargement, as in the modern Ambystoma 
punctatum. The stomach enlarges somewhat toward the 
pyloric end, and then very gradually constricts to the pyloris. 
Three diameters of the small intestine can be discerned. The 
most anterior one, corresponding with the duodenum, is seg- 
mented, as though the intestine were filled with food substance. 
The remainder of the intestine, corresponding to the ileum, 
is looped in the form of two figures “8,” which are superim- 
posed, with the upper portions of the “8” at right angles to 
each other. The rectum is clearly discernible, though its lower 
end is somewhat obscured by having the lower portion of the 
upper loop of the intestine lying over it. The anus lies at a 
distance of one and one-half millimeters posterior to the line 
from the upper end of the femur, and is quite well back on 
the tail, as in modern salamanders. In this specimen also 
occur two oval bodies, which may be identified as the lower 
ends of the oviducts; thus indicating, in all probability, that 
the animal was a female. 
A dissection of several species of modern urodeles has re- 
sulted in the discovery that the adult condition of the ali- 
mentary canal of all species dissected—Ambystoma punctatum, 
Necturus maculosus, Diemyctylus torosus, etc.—is much more 
complex than that exhibited by the specimen under discussion. 
A very near approach to the condition found in Humicrerpeton 
parvum is found in an immature branchiate individual of 
Diemyctylus torosus, 56 mm. in length, from a fresh-water 
